Grand Forks, ND Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

City Code section 18-0206 sets out separate statements of intent for the A-1 agricultural preservation district and the A-2 agricultural urban reserve district. The A-1 statement says the district exists to preserve and protect agricultural land use and the activities associated with it, recognizing that the Grand Forks urbanized area's proximity strongly influences land use decisions; the section directs nonfarm development into land already adjacent or contiguous to the city rather than into open farmland, aiming to prevent nonfarm rural development that would inhibit the city's ability to grow in an orderly manner later.

The A-2 statement of intent is narrower: it protects agricultural land as the primary use while allowing a limited amount of non-farm development, provided that development does not inhibit orderly future growth and stays consistent with the City of Grand Forks Comprehensive Plan. Table 18-0206(3) then sets the permitted, conditional and prohibited use categories for both districts, and section 18-0206(3)(A) instructs that if that table ever conflicts with the section 18-0204 definitions, the definitions control. The article also regulates animal feeding operations within these districts by parcel size, capping animal density on smaller parcels.

Planning and Community Development administers this zoning; a landowner proposing a nonfarm use in A-1 or A-2 works through the conditional use process in section 18-0703 rather than an as-of-right approval.